optical drives not showing

[spantrout]

Hi all,

I built my own comp maybe 2 yrs ago, Asus P5K-SE motherboard, windows vista (32bit) and Winfast PX8400GS TDH, anyway, everything was working fine then i packed comp away for a while and set it up again, everything working fine, then stored it for 6 mths and set it up again.

This time my DVD writer has disappeared. It does not appear in the BIOS but has power, drawer opens on demand etc, just not showing in BIOS, Device Manager, My Computer. Have tested externally and drive works fine.
Now, today I read somewhere that having installed Codecs may affect DVD being recognised. It led me to a page about (off the top of my head i'm struggling) removing upper and lower (limits?), which were accessed thru start button, enter "regedit" then goto class etc, anyway i did that and it made no difference.
I tried updating chipset, no difference, tried a new IDE cable, no difference, and now I really am at a loss as to why the comp is not recognising my internal dvd drive.
If anyone can shed any light on this I would be very grateful, as my head is fried already.

Thanks in advance,
Craig

 

[MindoverMaster]

BIOS and Vista are 2 completely different things. If BIOS can't see it, Windows will not. Not the other way around.

Did you try a different molex power cable? Could be just plain dead. It still gets power, but can't transmit data through the PATA cable.

I'd just get a new DVD burner. They're just under $20. Chuck the old one. Use it as a shooting target.

Edit: Or if you just have one around, try it in that system.

 

[spantrout]

Both DVD writers are perfectly fine, as i said both work perfectly externally connected via usb. I was thinking since I posted, that the DVD drive was showing when the comp got packed away, and when brought out next time the writer simply wasn't showing anymore. I'm not sure if there is a connection but at that point also a battery on my motherboard died, which ran the CMOS, every time i unplugged the comp from the mains, without fail when started for the next time i would always get a "CMOS is wrong" error message. This would involve resetting time and date. As i said i don't know if there is a connection or not but i feel this is a motherboard problem rather a drive problem

 

[MindoverMaster]

Even if BIOS was set to default, it could see you drive, regardless.